So we see the most important of the many services which the churches perform for the merchants--taking the revolutionary hope of Jesus, for a kingdom of heaven upon earth, and perverting it into a dream of a golden harp in an uncertain future. To appreciate the fullness of this betrayal, take the prayer which Jesus dictated--so simple, direct and practical: "Give us this day our daily bread", and put it beside the hymns which the slave-congregations are trained to sing. In my neighborhood is a one-roomed building with a plate glass front, upon which I observe a painter inscribing in red, white and blue letters the sign "#Glory Mission.#" I approach him, and he drops his work and welcomes me with eager cordiality. Am I "living in grace"? I answer that I am. I have to shout the good tidings into his ear, as he is very deaf. He presents me with his card, which shows that he bears the title of "Reverend", also the sobriquet of "Mountain Missionary". I ask him to permit me to examine the hymn-book which he uses in his work, and with touching eagerness he presses upon me a well-worn volume bearing the title "Waves of Glory". I seat myself and note down a few of the baits it sets out for hungry wage-slaves: O, there's a plenty, O, there's a plenty, There's a plenty in my Father's bank above! Riches in glory, riches in glory, Royal supply our wants exceed! Feasting, I'm feasting, I'm feasting with my Lord! Beautiful robes, beautiful robes, Beautiful robes we then shall wear! Jerusalem the golden, With milk and honey blest! Yes, I'll meet you in the city of the New Jerusalem, I'll be there, I'll be there! Blest Canaan land, bright Canaan land, I love to be in Canaan land! Oh, Beulah land, sweet Beulah land, As on the highest mount I stand, I look away across the sea, Where mansions are prepared for me! In the sweet bye and bye We shall meet on that beautiful shore-- I stopped there, being reminded of Joe Hill, poet of the I.W.W. who was executed a few years ago in Utah, and who used this tune in his little red book of revolutionary chants: You will eat, bye and bye, In the glorious land above the sky; Work and pray, live on hay, You'll get pie in the sky when you die! #Captivating Ideals# In one of the writer's earlier novels, "Prince Hagen", the hero is a Nibelung out of Wagner's "Rheingold", who leaves his diggings in the bowels of the earth, and comes up to look into our superior civilization. The thing that impresses him most is what he calls "the immortality idea". The person who got that up was a world-genius, he exclaims. "If you can once get a man to believing in immortality, there is no more left for you to desire; you can take everything he owns--you can skin him alive if it pleases you--and he will bear it all with perfect good humor."